Definition of Terms

Like the instruction manuals that scream at us, "Read me first," I recommend a
perusal of these terms before diving into the nitty-gritty of the text. Many of the terms
may already be familiar to you; some may have my own personal twist. In any event,
knowing this stuff will just make going through the book easier, since it is written for
the most part without stopping to define terms every two sentences.
Accents - The parts of the soundtrack that are louder or more stressed, which
should be indicated in the animation. In dialogue, it can be louder parts of words
or words that carry emotional stress; in music, it can be major beats or particularly
present instruments.
A nticipation - The smaller preparatory action that precedes a major action, used
to show that a character must physically prepare to perform an action or gesture.
Attitude Pose - A pose that expresses, through the entire body, what a character
is thinking and feeling.
Attitude W a lk - A walk that expresses, both through poses and movement, how
a character feels.
Background - The painted (usually) scene against which the full-color characters
perform in a finished scene. ("BG" for short.)
Breakdow n - The initial drawing or position made between two keys, which
defines how a character transitions from one idea to the next. ("BD" for short.)
Boil - The slang term used for the evident flickering of drawings when a scene
is run at speed, which results when lines and forms have not been drawn carefully
enough to follow through from one drawing to the next.

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Cel - Short for celluloid, the flammable material on which animation drawings were
inked and painted. Replaced in later years by non-fire-hazardous acetate, the term is
still in common usage (as in "held cel"), although almost all hand-drawn animation is
now digitally inked and painted.
C lea n -U p s - The drawings in an animation scene that are refined for final inking
or scanning, usually made by placing a new sheet of paper over the rough and per
fecting both the linework and the character nuances. In traditional animation today,
these are the drawings the audience sees on the screen.
C u s h io n -O u t and C u s h io n -In - The drawings that accelerate out of a pose,
spaced progressively farther apart (so the action does not start abruptly), and decel
erate into the following pose, spaced progressively closer together (to complete the
action with a smooth settling-in). Also known as "Slow-Out and Slow-ln."
D ra g - The drawing of action that indicates a portion of a character lagging behind,
used to create more fluidity in the perceived movement.
Eccentric A ctio n - Specialized movement within an action that cannot be articu
lated through normal inbetweening. This can include leg positions in a walk or run,
mouth positions, hand gestures, and elaborate movement on the entire body.
E xp o su re S h e e t - The bible of a scene in hand-drawn animation, showing the
timing, the dialogue frame-by-frame, camera and fielding information, the number
of cel levels required, and how many frames each drawing should be exposed.
("X-sheet" for short.)
E x tre m e - A key drawing or pose that is the most exaggerated or dynamic point
of a particular action.
F a v o rin g - Making an inbetween position that favors either the position directly
before it or after it, instead of making it directly in the center.
Foot - Unit by which 35mm film is measured and exposure sheets are subdivided.
1 foot = 16 frames, thus 1/2 feet = 24 frames, or 1 second of screen time. There are
90 feet of film per minute of screen time.
Film G ra m m a r - The language of filmmaking, comprised of different types of
shots, staging and editing principles, and scene transitions, and how they are used by
filmmakers to help tell a story.

F o llo w -T h ro u g h - The natural elaboration of an action that shows how one part
leads organically to the next until the action is resolved.
Fram e - One single picture, usually equaling /24 of a second in the cinema, whether
film or digital projection is used. 24 frames = 1 second of screen time; 16 frames =
1 foot. Because of differing electrical systems around the globe, some altered frame
rates occur on television broadcasts. U.S. NTSC television runs at 60 Hz per second,
so some animation is timed to 30 frames per second (fps), although most is still
produced at 24 fps and converted electronically. The PAL system in Europe is based
on a 50Hz per second cycle, so animation is timed for 25 fps.
H eld Cel - Portion of a character that is not moving and is drawn onto its own cel
level, used to avoid redrawing the non-moving part over a series of frames.
In b e tw e e n - A drawing or position made in a scene that comes between the keys
and breakdowns. At times they can be right in the middle; at other times they can
favor either the earlier or the later position.
In b e tw e e n C h a rt - Chart on a key drawing that indicates both the spacing of
the inbetweens and the order in which they are to be drawn up until the next key.
Keys - The important drawings or poses in a scene that establish the basic tentpoles of the movement and performance.
Layout - The setting in which the animated action takes place, indicating sizes of
characters in relation to their background, perspective, camera position and move
ment, major positions of characters within the scene, lighting, and composition of
the shot.
Limited A n im a tio n - Animation with a reduced number of drawings for either
stylistic or economic reasons, most commonly seen in television cartoons.
Line o f A c tio n - The first line indicated in a pose, showing the basic overall
posture, prior to adding the rest of the details.
Lip-Sync - The animation of lip and mouth shapes in synchronization to the
number of frames indicated for each dialogue sound on the exposure sheets.
Mass - A character's personal dimensionality; what his shapes look like in three
dimensions, moving around.
Moving H old - A minimal amount of movement used to keep a character alive while
still communicating a strong pose or attitude. Also known as a "Glorified Pose."

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O nes - The exposure of drawings or positions for one frame each; there would be
24 drawings on ones for a second of screen time.
O v e rla p - The actions that indicate that not all parts of a character arrive at the
same time, and can go past the point of arrival and settle back. Used to indicate
weight, movement of clothing, hair, etc.
P a n to m im e - An animation scene that has no dialogue, in which a character's
thoughts and emotions are expressed entirely through his poses, expressions, and
movement.
P a rtia l - A rough animation drawing that only includes the eccentric actions (lipsync, leg positions, a shut or partially shut eye), leaving the remainder to be done as
a straight inbetween (usually by an assistant animator or rough inbetweener).
P assin g P o s itio n - In a walk, the intermediate pose in which one leg is passing
in front of the other.
P h ra s in g - The process of containing a sentence of dialogue within an organic
pattern of movement.
P o s e -to -P o s e - The method of animating by establishing key poses first, and
then going back in to complete the breakdowns and inbetweens.
R ecoil - The after-effect of an abrupt stop, where a character (or parts of him) go
past the eventual final pose and settle back into it.
R oughs - The drawings in an animation scene made prior to clean-up, usually asso
ciated with the animator's first pass of realizing the movement and performance.
S e c o n d a ry A c tio n - Action animated in addition to a major action, used to
show nuance within the main idea. For example, a major action could be a character
settling into an impatient pose; the secondary action could be the character tapping
his foot impatiently to a faster rhythm.
S ilh o u e tte - The overall shape of a pose, which should read clearly even when
the pose is blacked in without its internal details.
S pacing - The process of determining how far apart the positions should be from
one another, based on the knowledge that the farther apart, the faster the action, the
closer together, the slower the action.
S ta g g e r - The mechanical manipulation of frames to achieve a vibration on
screen.

S tag g ered T im in g - Parts of a scene or piece of animation that do not occur at

the same time. For example, several characters doing the same dance step could be
on staggered timing (one frame earlier, two frames later, etc.) in order for the group
action to appear more naturally on the screen.
Staging - The positioning of characters in a scene for maximum emotional content
and clear readability of actions.
S to ry te llin g D ra w in g s - The drawings in a scene that succinctly communicate
to an audience the important ideas expressed through the action.
S tra ig h t-A h e a d - The technique of animating in order, from the beginning to
the end of a scene, to achieve a natural flow from one drawing to the next. Not
as easily controlled as the pose-to-pose method, straight-ahead animation requires
strict attention to the maintaining of volumes and sizes, but can result in very fluid
looking movement.
Strobing - The unwanted effect of a vibration across the screen, usually associated
with vertical shapes perpendicular to the horizon. Strobing would occur if a character
were animated on twos while the camera panned on ones - almost the optical ver
sion of a "stagger." The way to fix this problem is to put in the single inbetweens on
ones for the duration of the pan.
Successive B re a k in g o f Joints - The term first coined by animator Art Babbitt
to describe how a character can move fluidly based on anatomy. You can show a
"wave" action in a character's arm, for example, by having the arm travel downward,
"breaking" at the elbow, and then successively "breaking" at the wrist as the rest of
the arm catches up, and then breaking in the opposite direction at elbow and wrist
on the way back up.
Texture - The appearance of differences in timing, spacing, pacing, and emotional
range within an animation scene, in order to keep the scene interesting and believ
able to an audience.
Thumbnails - A series of quick sketches (usually small, thus "thumbnail") used to
figure out major poses and storytelling drawings in a scene.
Tie-Downs - The drawings made as a secondary stage in rough animation that
further refine the expressions and details throughout a scene, usually made by an
animator on top of his own initial roughs.

T im in g - The process of determining how long each drawing or position should

be on screen, based on the knowledge that 24 frames equal one second of
screen time.
Tw os - The exposure of drawings or positions for two frames apiece; there would
be twelve drawings on twos for one second of screen time.
T ra c e b a c k - Portion of a character that is held for several frames, but "traced
back" to an original source drawing over the remaining amount of the hold. This is
used to keep a character feeling alive, rather than separating the held portion onto a
separate level.
V o lu m e - The amount of space a character takes up; even if a character is squashed,
stretched, or distorted, his volume should remain consistent.
W e ig h t - Indication of a character's poundage, shown through the timing, overlap,
and style of movement.

Layout and Staging

Animators need to have a good working knowledge of the mechanics of film and film
composition to understand how these tools of communication can best support their
performances (and how the performances can be engineered to complement the
filmic concepts).

Film Grammar: Types of Shots

Establishing Shot - shows the overall setting (and perhaps characters involved) to define
for the audience the place, the time of day, and the atmosphere of the sequence.
Medium Shot (M.S.) - shot that shows characters' full bodies in a framing spacious
enough to include reasonable background (and possibly foreground) detail.
Long Shot (L.S.) - camera is far away from subject matter, characters quite small in
frame.
Close-Up (C.U.) - close detail shot (often facial) with little or no extraneous back
ground detail.
[Also "Medium Close-Up" (M.C.U.) - say, a waist-up shot of characters, and "Medium
Long Shot" (M.L.S.) - characters farther away than in a medium shot, but not tiny,
plus Extreme C.U. and Extreme L.S.]
P.O.V. (point of view) Shot - composed and staged as if the audience is experienc
ing the shot first-hand through the character's eves.
Crane Shot - shot with shifting composition (height of camera, distance from sub
ject matter, turning around a character or stationary object), so called because of
the hydraulic crane required to execute such a shot in live-action.
Panning Shot, or Pan - which has the camera moving up, down, or across the scene, either to
follow the action of a character, or to establish a scene and "locate" the focus of attention.

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Trucking Shots - "Truck In" shots are used to zero in on an area of developing
importance as the scene unfolds. "Truck Out" shots are used to reveal things
of developing importance in the surrounding area originally outside the field of
vision. In live-action, executed with telephoto lenses instead of physically moving
the camera (also known as "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out").
Cutaway - cut to a reaction shot of a second character (other than the one perform
ing or speaking).
Tracking Shot - follows a character's action throughout a scene.
Dolly Shot - like a truck-in or -out, but executed with the camera on tracks to get
closer to or farther away from the subject (as opposed to doing it solely with the
lenses), giving more depth and changing background perspective.
Scene transitions:

Cut - most often-used way of changing scenes: one scene finishes, and the next fol
lows, butted up against it.
Fade - establishes a passage of time. "Fade o u t/fa d e in" means one thought or
sequence ends / a new one begins at a later time. "Fade in" opens a sequence and
determines the start of a new idea. "Fade out" is the "period" at the end, which
says that the sequence or chain of ideas has been completed.
Dissolve - also establishes a passage of time, but because the two scenes overlap, it
usually denotes a shorter lapse of time than fade out/fade in (unless the dissolve
is quite long). Dissolves can also be used to compress time (when two scenes are
too short to convey an idea, the dissolve lengthens both of them).
Wipe - an animated, optically printed, or digitally created device that obliterates
the existing scene and reveals the next (sometimes seen as a "clock"), which also
denotes passage of time.
"W hip" pan - high-speed blurred pan that moves rapidly away from the existing
scene to the new scene - often in a completely different area or time, the blur
"fudging" the geography between the two.
"Jump Cut" - a mistake that occurs when one scene directly follows another and
repeats elements from i t only marginally differently, thus resulting in a "jump."
(Cuts work best when their composition, size of subject, and camera angle are
markedly different from each other.)

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have the move slightly precede the animation to more clearly read the character's
landing.
You will encounter many more situations like these as you animate; the more wellversed you are in these mechanics, the more you can ensure that your animation
communicates your intentions for the scene.
C o m p o s itio n
Consider the design of the overall frame - what makes a pleasing combination
of large and small shapes, light and dark, angles and straights against curves,
etc.? Not everything that is important must be center-screen; often a major
character can look better in a composition to one side or another, if the BG
elements are designed to lead your eye to him.
Allow certain areas of the layout to be less cluttered so your characters are in a
visually "quiet" area of the frame for maximum readability. Don't compose a BC
layout without considering character placement and movement; you can make
a very pleasing and artful BG layout that works well by itself but looks lousy on
film when characters are placed on it. Also, the length of screen time has direct
bearing on the amount of detail you can include - the longer the
more chance the audience has to see interesting details; the shorter the scene,
the simpler the composition should be.
Consider the characters themselves as compositional design elements: their
shapes, sizes, and placement may be the major design points of a scene (espe
cially a group scene).

Instead of a dull composition like this...

Further examples:

... try a dynamically staged one like this!

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G e o g ra p h y
Establish an overall plan of the environment in which your characters will be moving
(perhaps a top view and a front view) and imagine the camera stationed around it to
give the various shots needed in the sequence. Most filmmakers prefer not to break
the 180 arc:
Where you place the camera depends on how elaborate your staging should be
for readability and visual interest:

"Proscenium arch" - Imagine the set like a theater stage, where all the action
takes place behind the proscenium arch and imagine the camera panning, cut
ting from close-up to long shot, etc., directly in front of the action. This is the
simplest form of camera placement.

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More elaborate framing requires more consideration of various elements.

Establish screen direction: If your characters are moving and facing from left to
right, don't throw in a scene where the character relationships are thrown into
complete reverse; it will look as if the characters are swapping places in the
room rather than the camera changing its po in t of view. Even if your camera
placement differs radically from scene to scene, screen direction can be the
cohesive element.
Example:

view of character running in

ert

M.C.U. of character center

screen while BG pans past

Character runs down into distance,

having entered from screen left.

By keeping the screen direction generally left to right, these scenes cut together
fluidly even though the camera placement shifts radically. But imagine audience con
fusion if the second scene were flopped:

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Establish logic of camera placement: If, for example, you're dealing with small char
acters, you may want the camera close to the ground with them at all times. If your
sequence deals with speed (a typical Road Runner chase, for example), you may want
a succession of scenes with characters center-screen and BGs rushing past (rather than
interrupting the flow with, say, one scene in the middle of the action with a stationary
camera and the characters whizzing past the lens). If you want a "fragmented," offbeat
look, you may want to use discontinuous scenes with a variety of angles. Or, as with the
runner, you may want to make a series of interestingly composed shots with the move
ment of the character as the logical thread that holds the sequence together.
Do you want a moving or a stationary shot? Basically, the camera needn't move
unless it is integral to telling the story. Don't stick in a 5-field truck-in when getting
closer to the character doesn't illuminate the scene any further. Don't cut back and
forth, in and out, just for the sake of moving the camera around. The exception is a
gentle "moving camera," quiet 1- or 2-field trucks or pans that take the edge off the
hard cuts and lend production value.

Staging
Staging in animation is about communicating effectively to your audience, utilizing
elements of layout, background, composition, and organization of characters.
A large part of staging is layout and film grammar: knowing when to use a close-up,
when to pan, when to truck in or out, when to cut from one scene to another. Much
of this can be learned from watching live-action editing and seeing how the camera is
placed (and why!). Knowing how screen geography works is also a necessary tool.
S ta g in g Y o u r C h a ra cters
Who has the m ain action in the scene? If it is a group scene, is the major char
acter in a clear enough area to do his acting? Does the scene require a close-up
for him to punch his point home? Are the poses well-delineated?
Does the scene shift in importance from one character to another? Is it com
posed to account for this shift in importance? Can the secondary characters
add, through movement, importance to this shift through head turns, changes
of posture, reactions to what is being said, etc.?
Has continuity of characters from scene to scene (which ones are included, their
postures and movements) been accounted for? Is there continuity from scene

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to scene of the character's relationship to the BG? (If a character is standing in

front of a door in the medium shot, is a piece of the door and its relationship to
the character shown in the close-up?)
Leading the audience's eye in a two-character sequence:
Around a frame:

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Stage your characters as interesting compositional elements within the scene.

Contrast tall and short, near and far, lit and shaded, etc.
Example: Hero is sad, Sidekick is sympathetic. Hero has the dialogue.

OK, but kind of boring profile.

Better, because it emphasizes Hero, and helps

you feel more about what he is feeling. Also,
by making Sidekick even smaller, he looks
even more helpless.

Example: Slimeball is trying to force his charms upon unwilling Gal.

Better, because Slimeball's diagonal thrust

contrasts Gal's straight vertical. Also better
because Gal no longer is facing Slimeball her physical refusal to listen makes him have
to work harder and get closer!
S ta g in g Y o u r C h a ra cters in a D ia lo g u e Scene
Allow enough time for what one character is saying or doing to sink in to jh e
other character's brain. Dont have the "listening" character react too soon or
he'll step on the active character's performance.

L A Y O U T AND STAGI N

Don't break the 180 line when planning compositions or cuts.

CAMERA ( C ) OK

C a mera (D) N/G!!

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Other more extreme but OK cuts might be:

The occasional off-screen reaction (someone listening to the main speaker) is

nice, too, but remember to keep them facing in the right direction to the established
relationship:

A little air on the left of screen is best: in the event you cut to a C.U. of the other
guy, their body shapes won't overlap so much from cut to cut!
Get value out of moving holds and traceback holds while the main character is
emoting. Just because one person is talking doesn't mean the listener should
be dead. He can still be doing an underplayed movement to show he is paying
attention!

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Plan your characters' actions so they overlap the cuts a little.

Shot 1: Hero's head turns toward Sidekick as

he finishes his line.

Shot 2: Sidekick says his line, while Hero's

head resolves up into a hold to watch.

S ta g in g M u ltip le C h a ra c te r Scenes
What do you want your audience to see? If you're trying to highlight a particular
character amongst a crowd, a few things might help: brighter colors on that
character, a drifting camera move toward the character, other characters ani
mated to reveal your lead character.
Does the focus shift in the scene? Perhaps you want to start with one character
walking through a scene amongst a crowd of people and you then want to pick
up another character trying to follow him. Example:

1: Starts as dog walks toward screen right. Camera drifts in to pick

little puppy coming toward us.

Shot 2: Cut to puppy center

screen while crowd and BG pass
by.

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Can camera moves help you to lead the audience? Perhaps a gentle drift, if not
an out-and-out truck-in, toward where you want the audience to look would be
enough. (Maybe your scene starts as an establishing shot with many characters
fas the camera moves toward the hero. Perhaps a character turns quickly and
you whip-pan to what he sees.
Are there actions that can be read as general activity in a multiple character shot?
If the impression you want to convey is one of general hubbub, you can plan
the scene for fairly contained movement without accents that are too strong, for
two reasons:
- No two viewers will necessarily settle on the same crowd character. Have a
few minor accents to chew on but nothing too outrageous.
- If you have your hero in the shot, you can then afford to give him more dis
tinctive movement to draw the audience's attention.

Econom y o f S tag in g
Find ways of making a two- or three-character situation into essentially onecharacter shots. Establish the situation, then use close-ups to focus in.
Are there times an effect can tell the story?
Examples:

a. A cast shadow of a
character against a wall
and the other character
watching.

b. A large portion of a
character passing in front
of a character farther
back.

c. A change in lighting
to tell the mood of the
scene.

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97

Does the

moye? Can you tell the story effectively with simple

cutting and composition? In other words, use the camera movement for specific
storytelling reasons, not just for the sake of moving it.
Optional exercise: A little boy is wandering in a crowded city. He gets lost in the
shuffle until he shouts, "Stop!" and the crowd freezes. He then asks the anxiously
awaiting multitudes: "Where's the bathroom?" Stage the sequence in rough storyboard form .